File import problem

EndNote EndNote General
1

I am having problems getting files into EndNote 6.02 for Mac. I’m using Firefox 21 and OS X 10.8.3, and working with Ebsco databases at my university library. The issue is this: Firefox won’t download RIS files. Instead, I get files named “Delivery.” Additionally, when I try to dl or drag the file into EndNote, EndNote kicks up a “Select a Reference Library” dialog. This dialog will show the folder containing my libraries, but the folder will be empty. The dialog also shows a rotating gear icon in the lower left corner. Sometimes the files will still show up in EndNote anyway, and sometimes this wil work without the dialog. TheEN  mode doesn’t seem to matter. WorldCat will dl a proper RIS file, but I still sometimes have problems getting the file into EndNote. For successful drags, EN must always be the frontmost application. Successful drags must also always be to the EN dock icon.

The Lib folder is from EN X2, imported from an older machine. I can open the files fine with EN, and the permissions seem to be ok. I reset these so that the folder and files all have the same permission (RW). Firefox is set to have EN handle RIS files. Zotero was uninstalled and and FF was restarted afterward. The Ebsco prefs are set to RIS, and the export option I have been choosing is RIS. I still get the “Delivery” files and no direct export into an EN library. I have tried both with and without an open EN library. 

Any help would be much appreciated.

2

Hello, Russ:

It’s possible that WorldCat may not be exporting their files with the file extension .ris, so that Firefox doesn’t realize it’s supposed to be opening with EndNote. Try this – go to your Firefox Preferences>Applications. Change ANY file types that are currently set to Save File as their action to Always Ask. Try the export again, and this time Firefox ought to ask what it should do with the file. Click the Browse button and browse to Applications: EndNote X6 and select the EndNote application file. If prompted for a library, please use the dialog to open the library you wish to import into.

3

Hello Gillian,

I tried your suggestion, anf FF threw the dialog asking me whether I wanted to open or save the file. This dialog correctly identified the file as a RIS file. I tried both options, and got the same result: a “Delivery” file downloaded to my Downloads folder. (This file does not have the RIS file icon. FF also labels it as a Delivery file.) When I tried dragging either file to the EN dock icon, the other part of my problem remained: The “Select a Reference Library” dialog with a working gear icon. When I cancel this dialog, I get another dialog informing me that the file could not be opened.

BTW, WorldCat gives me the correct icon. It’s the Ebsco dbs that don’t. I have trouble getting both into EN, however.